Ecofeminism
CALENDAR - Spring 2009
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I. INTRODUCTION: Silent Spring , Then and Now
Thursday, January 22
Introductions: The course and us
Film: "Toxic Bust" (41 minutes)
Monday, January 26
Reading: Silent Spring, Chapters 1-6
Organize poster groups.
Thursday, January 29
Reading: Silent Spring , Chapters 7-9
Monday, February 2
Reading: Silent Spring, Chapters 10-14
Thursday, February 5
Reading: Silent Spring, Chapters 15-17
GREEN FAIR! No class meeting.
Monday, February 9
Silent Spring response essays due; roundtable discussion
Start film: Bahar, Robert, and George McCullough. "Laid to Waste: A Chester Neighborhood Fights for Its Future," 2006 (53 minutes).
Sign up for critique essays for second unit. Essays to be assigned are marked with an asterisk.
Thursday, February 12
Reading (on SOCS): Nelson, "The Place of Women in Polluted Places" (16 pp); Diamond, "Babies, Heroic Experts, and a Poisoned Earth" (11 pp) from Diamond, Irene, and Gloria Feman Orenstein, eds., Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism (Sierra Club, 1990); Simpson, "Who Hears Their Cry?" from The Environmental Justice Reader: Politics, Poetics, and Pedagogy (U Arizona P, 2002).
Continue film: Bahar, Robert, and George McCullough. "Laid to Waste: A Chester Neighborhood Fights for Its Future," 2006 (53 minutes).
II. REWEAVING THE DISCIPLINES: KNOWLEDGE, FEMINISM, ECOSCIENCE
Monday, February 16
Forecast of Community Engaged Learning project!
Readings (on SOCS): * Leguin, "Introduction" (Critique by Cassandra)
Leguin, "Buffalo Gals" from Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1990) (Critiques by Eshica and Jenna)
Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?" (1974) (Critiques by Katie and Kari)
Introduction from Code, Ecological Thinking: The Politics of Epistemic Location (2006) (Critiques by Lauren and Lynette)
Thursday, February 19
Reading: * Berkes, "Sacred Ecology: Traditional Ecological Knowledge" (course reader) (critiques by Michele and Arielle)
Godfrey, "Ecofeminist Cosmology in Practice: Genesis Farm and the Embodiment of Sustainable Solutions" Capitalism Nature Socialism (2008) (on SOCS) (critiques by Meagan and Anastasia)
Stenmark, "An Ecology of Knowledge: Feminism, Ecology, and the Science and Religion Discourse,"* www.metanexus.net (critiques by Emily and Kevin)
Monday, February 23
Reading: * Mies, "Feminist Research: Science, Violence, and Responsibility"* (18 pp) (Critiques by Anya and DJ)
Shiva, "Women's Indigenous Knowledge and Biodeversity Conservation"* (10 pp) from Mies and Shiva, Ecofeminism (1993) (critiques by Julia and Leigh)
Merchant, "Isis: Women and Science" (15 pp) from Earthcare (on SOCS) (critiques by Melissa and Elizabeth)
Organize Prodigal Summer literature circles.
III• Application: Ecofeminist Literary Practice
Thursday, February 26
Visit with Bonner Center leadership about CEL project
Reading: Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer , chapters 1-7.
Literature circles meet
Monday, March 2
Reading: Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer , chapters 8-14.
Literature circles meet
Thursday, March 5
Reading: Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer , chapters 15-20.
Literature circles meet
Monday, March 16
Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer , chapters 21-end.
Literature circles meet; portfolios due
IV• Women and Nature: Beyond Essentialism vs. Anti-Essentialism
Thursday, March 19
Reading: Merchant, Ch. 2 "Eve: Nature and Narrative" (30 pp) from Earthcare (1995); LeGuin, "She Unnames Them" (3 pp) (on SOCS); Merchant, "Partnership," from Reinventing Eden (packet)
Monday, March 23
Reading: Merchant, "Eden Commodified (19 pp) from Reinventing Eden (packet); Starhawk, "Power, Authority, and Mystery: Ecofeminism and Earth-Based Spirituality" from Diamond and Orenstein, Reweaving the World (14 pp) (on SOCS)
Thursday, March 26
Reading: Maathai, The Green Belt Movement , pp. 1-60.
Film: "Nobelity" (interview with Wangari Maathai).
Monday, March 30
Reading, Maathai, The Green Belt Movement , pp. 61-117.
"Gender and Nature" position paper due
Organize literature circles for Woman on the Edge of Time.
V. Women and Nature: Alternate Worlds
Thursday, April 2
Reading: Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time, pp. 1-95.
Monday, April 6
Reading: Mies, "New Reproductive Technologies: Sexist and Racist Implications" (24 pp) from Mies and Shiva, Ecofeminism (on SOCS); Piercy, Woman at the Edge of Time , pp. 96-190.
Thursday, April 9
Reading: Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time , pp. 191-290; Swimme, "How to Heal a Lobotomy" (8 pp) from Diamond and Orenstein, Reweaving the World (on SOCS).
Monday, April 13
Reading: Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time , pp. 291-end; Razak, "Toward a Womanist Analysis of Birth" (8 pp) from Diamond and Orenstein, Reweaving the World (on SOCS).
VI. Ecofeminist Instances
Thursday, April 16
Woman at the Edge of Time essays due.
Reading: Lorentzen, "Indigenous Feet: Ecofeminism, Globalization, and the Case of Chiapas" (16 pp.) from Eaton and Lorentzen, eds., Ecofeminism & Globalization: Exploring Culture, Context, and Religion (2003); Shiva, "The Chipko Women's Concept of Freedom" (5 pp) and Mies, "The Myth of Catching-Up Development" (15 pp) from Ecofeminism (on SOCS).
Monday, April 20
Reading: Shiva, "Decolonizing the North" (13 pp) from Mies and Shiva, Ecofeminism (on SOCS); Perry, "Engendering Environmental Thinking" (14 pp), Jones-DeWeever & Hartmann, "Abandoned Before the Storm" and Moravelli & Barnes, "Greater New York" (16 pp) (reader).
Thursday, April 23
Reading: Shiva, Soil Not Oil
Film: "Bullshit."
April 27
Reading: Shiva, Soil Not Oil
VII. CLOSURE
Wednesday, April 29, 3:20-4:20 CELEBRATION OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT*** (special date)
Group Position Papers due; presentation by representatives of each working group for the garden project: "Imagine a Community Garden Here: Ecofeminist Visions, First Steps"
Finals week
Monday, May 4, 1:30-4:20 PM, SOC 131
Individual Record and Reflections due; wrap up Groundwork Legacy (wiki); roundtable on where we've been and what's next